EPT Deauville - Final Table Player Profiles

Seat 1: Claudiu Secara, 35, Brasov, Romania - 795,000 chips

Romanians have certainly made an impression at this tournament, a sign of this country's growing presence in international poker. There are two Romanians on the final table and a third Romanian - Robert Cezarescu - was knocked out in 13th place. Secara has played a number of EPTs and made it to Day 2 of the EPT Grand Final last year. His best result so far however was 12th place at EPT Prague in December for €31,400. Poker is not a full-time occupation for Secara - by day he's the general manager of a timber company but as his wife Csila puts it: "He's not surprised to get this far. He's a good player and he's worked hard for this. He hopes to go even further."

 

Seat 2: Jake "neverbluff67" Cody, 21, Rochdale, UK - 4,650,000 chips

Former psychology student Cody came to EPT Deauville - his first ever EPT - with friends. He mainly plays online where he has a string of good results including a recent second-place finish in a $1,500 event for $198k. He went to the PCA, played loads of side events but failed to cash; he also competed in the first PokerStars Italian Poker Tour event which was won by his friend Matt Perrins and had a min-cash at the recent PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour event in Galway.

 

Seat 3: Michael "Fratton" Fratty, 34, Paris, France - 1,595,000 chips

Fratty is an exuberant personality who has been thoroughly enjoying his time at the EPT. It only cost him €250 to enter after he won a Casino Barrière satellite held before the main event. Fratty is an optician for a living but has been playing poker for fun with friends for the last 20 years. He prefers playing online and his favorite game is Omaha. He has won two $55 tournament on PokerStars; his best live result was second place in a €500 NLHE event in Paris. He has staged a great comeback at this EPT - at one point he was down to just three big blinds and  he is delighted to have made it this far. He joked that if he wins, he will "buy a big flat and stop playing poker"! His wife Jessica is supporting him at home where she is caring for the couple's two children.

 

Seat 4: Teodor Caraba - 21, Timişoara, Romania - PokerStars qualifier - 6,915,000 chips

Caraba has been playing poker since childhood but seriously for around 18 months. He mainly plays online but also visits local casinos where he plays in cash games. This is his first EPT. "I know I'm good and the field was really weak to start with," he said. "I'm satisfied with what I've done so far - now I just hope I win." Caraba won his Deauville seat in a $530 satellite on PokerStars a few weeks ago.

 

Seat 5: Peter Eastgate, 24, Denmark, Team PokerStars Pro - 3,135,000 chips

Peter Eastgate bludgeoned his way into the poker consciousness in the most dramatic fashion possible, scoring his first major success at the 2008 World Series Main Event. He became (at the time) the youngest ever champion by outlasting the inaugural November Nine, winning $9 million and the platinum bracelet. It was no fluke. Eastgate cashed in the Main Event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure the following January and then took down a $5,000 side event. He followed that by finishing second at the Main Event of EPT London in October last year, winning close to $850,000. This is his second EPT final table and his fifth in-the-money finish - and he's only 24-years-old.

 

Seat 6: Craig "HU4ROLLZ" Bergeron, 20, Michigan - PokerStars qualifier - 3,135,000

Bergeron held the chip lead for much of Day 3 and is currently in fourth place. Bergeron is an extremely well-known mid-stakes Multi Table Tournament and Sit and Go online player. His best result so far was sixth place in the PokerStars Sunday Million $215 last March for  $40,000. He also came second in another online event in November for a further $40,000. In live events, Bergeron's best result was winning the €2,000 event at EPT Dortmund last year.  He qualified for EPT Deauville in a $22 Rebuy satellite on PokerStars.

 

Seat 7: Stephane Albertini, 28, Corsica - 3,555,000 chips

Albertini has been playing poker for the last 12 years or so, mainly in casinos and almost always cash rather than tournaments. He often comes along to EPTs but usually to play in the high stakes cash games that are are running at the same time as the tournaments. He has played in around six EPT main events but - until now - has never cashed. His best live tournament results have been in Marrakech in Morocco where he has cashed for sums around the €20,000 mark. He is being enthusiastically supported at EPT Deauville by a group of friends on the rail.

 

Seat 8: Mike "Timex" McDonald, 20, Canada - PokerStars qualifier - 1,815,000 chips

In 2008, when he was 18 years old, Mike "Timex" McDonald became the youngest ever champion of an EPT Main Event, earning $1.4m as he won in Dortmund and also became the first Canadian champion on the European Poker Tour. In Deauville today, McDonald now stands a chance of becoming the first two-time champion in the tour's six-season history, on what will be his third EPT final table. A regular on the internet poker discussion forums, and a feared presence at the online tables, "Timex" has numerous five-figure successes in the major tournaments and more than $2 million in live winnings. He now divides his time almost 50-50 between the online and live game - and has recently found a new hunger. "I've felt a lot more motived by poker in the last six to eight months," he said. "I wasn't really feeling that motivated before." Be warned